Beer: Ratings & Reviews

Reviews by midnite2sixman:

Got this at Siciliano's in Grand Rapids, MI and poured into a snifter while still cool from their cooler.. Reddish brown tint not hazy, not dirty, quite a nice looking beer in the glass. Little bit of head, fine bubbles.

Figs and raisins on the nose, brown sugar, malty goodness.

Taste is quite something on this one, for a big beer you don't get as much of the alcohol as you would think and the malts and the belgian yeast really balance well, brown sugar intermingles with a the malts as well.

More User Reviews:

This is a nice malty Belgian whose mouthfeel feels like its going to start out as a Flemish red, but quickly develops into heavy malt instead of sweetness or tartness. The color is a cloudy amber with a large, foamy head that dissipates into lingering lace. The smell makes it hard to pin down the style, but some booziness is detectable after a strong whiff. I think this would be best with some sturdy, aromatic type of food, like blue cheese, to go with it, more so than drinking it by itself.

Not a big nose – traces of fruit, caramel, malt. It pours dark caramel under a 1” light tan foam cap that dissipates fairly quick for a Belgian. The palate starts with a fruit cocktail composed of cherries, light apple and plum sweetened by light caramel malt and seasoned with light spice and herbs. It finishes with a light bitter accent. The beer is yeast driven but well composed. The beer is highly carbonated with a body just above medium.

A- This beer has a dark pecan colored body with a yellowish-beige thick head that makes ring marks with each sip. The body is a bid dense but microbubbles of carbonation can be seen gliding up the sides of the glass.

S- This beer has a faint banana smell with a light candy sugar and toffee smell to it slightly similar to bananas foster. There is a light herbal green lemon note in the finish.

T- This beer has a smooth sweetness with a faint plastic and caramel taste to it. There is a faint banana taste in the background with a light floral lemon note at the finish. A soft bitterness of an herbal quality finish the aftertaste but doesn't linger.

M- This beer has a medium mouthfeel with a soft alcohol heat at the finish that does a nice job of balancing the sweetness.

D-This beer has some nice big sweetness with a nice alcohol finish but not much depth in the flavor. The plastic note as a bit odd but the rest of the flavor compensated for it.

Pours a deep reddish brown, and in a tulip glass the head was most excelent.The smell was sweet, with lots of dark fuits (dates, figs, raisins), and good belgian ale yeast. The taste was very malty and fruity, and fairly sweet as well. The mouthfeel was slightly syupy with slight carbonatoin, and the alcohol presence was masked extremely well. Drinkability was low, only because this is a sweet, thick beer with lots of booze in it.

Poured from the bottle with a finger of head which was gone quickly. This beer had a light brown/deep amber color. Smelled like dates. Initially tasted raisens, dates, and carmel. Then, some resiliant hops. Lightly sweet, fairly smooth. Medium body with the 12% etoh felt on the tongue as I let the beer sit. Very good, I'm glad I was able to sample this rather rare brew.

the colour, A cloudy juice with apple and pear. The smell, a yeasty odour with booze, like something not ready to serve. Taste and mouthfeel - so, so, was better than warmed. Faintest whisp of head and lace. Low carbonation, after a bit of pop in the open. Was this to be served 3 years ago, or needs 6 more months to ferment?

A.Cloudy burgundy in appearance.Hard to see carbination due to cloudyness. Very small head probably due to the pour of the waitress. S.Plum is the most prominant smell. With some other fruits in the mix, and a hint of alcohol. T.Unique even among quads. A hint of plum and fig, sweet but does not hinder. M.Near perfect carbonation. Mouthfeel is full and pleasant. D.Excellant for a quad, I would be able to drink two of these and enjoy the whole ride a third would be pushing it.The alcohol is also a factor to consider at 12%.

Note: Be careful pouring this one... there's a lot of yeast in there, and it'll sneak past you unless you're ready. On the other hand, it's not bad if you do let it go through. Also, my bottles all had the same label which read "brewed in 2002" - I guess this was a special brew made for members of the Burgundian Babble Belt.

Carefully poured from a longstanding bottle, it's a slightly hazy chestnut brown beneath a superbly creamy head of ivory that looks like some kind of creamy soup. The head retention is excellent (particularily for a beer with an alcohol content of 12%!), and it leaves short walls of solid lace just above the surface, and some thin, residual lace throughout the goblet.

The nose is fruity (strawberry, sugared plum) with a caramelish maltiness and an occassional whiff of alcohol.

In the mouth it's lightly zesty on the tongue before billowing out into an airy cushion.

The rich, wide, and satiating flavor is full of strawberry, raisin, cola, tangerine, sugared pineapple, and some mild papaya above a puddle of caramel that's sprinkled with dry cocoa and livened by a splash of alcohol.

It finishes with a receeding fruity sweetness that leaves behind a smear of caramelish malt.

Had a bottle for $10 at The Farmhouse in Emmaus, PA. Poured murky brown with a short tan head. 12% is a lot for a Belgian and it shows. This beer is more barleywine than anything, though the Belgian influence is there. The big fig and cocoa malt flavor are certainly rich, but the body is thin and dry enough (like a good quad) to make this drinkable and avoid a syrup-y feeling. Still the flavor isn't terribly complex. I'd call this more of a strong dark as it doesn't resemble your average quad.

Served from bottle into a Trappistes Rochefort chalice. Poured a slightly red-orange with a one finger off-white head that subsided to half a finger very slowly. Maintained decent lacing throughout the glass. The aroma was comprised of sweet malt, sugar, citrus, lemon rine, and dark fruit. The flavor was of sweet malt, dark fruit, alcohol, sugar, citrus, lemon rine, wheat, and bread. It had a medium feel on the palate with very high carbonation. Ovearll this was a decent brew. Based on the aroma I really wasn't expecting much from this brew. However, the flavor was quite complex and pretty good. Not sure how the citrus aspect was supposed to tie into this brew, but it didn't kill it in any way; just didn't enhance it. Worth trying for any fan of the style.

S: quite strange with a sweet caramel peanut butter aroma and some bread.

T: The flavor was full of nice dark fruit, plums, prunes and raisins. Nice warming caramel with some alcohol detection but is very well hidden other wise. Also some fresh apples and toffee is detected in flavor. Upon warming alcohol stands out, caramel apple and warm fruit.

M: active from the carbonation with a nice silkiness texture to it. Slippery on the tongue.

D: The abv of 12% is very well hidden, perhaps to much so. Very sweet and a very good try.

Pours the color of caramel candy apple, hazy with brown dominant and red tints. No head at all and very little evidence of any carbonation.
Aroma is coriander, spciy yeast, some burnt brown sugar and candi sugar with a hint of some dark citurs fruit.
Flavor starts with dark malt, almost chocolate hint that moves to a bready, grain alcohol hit and finishes with a heavy yeast hit.
Mouthfeel is average to me. The total lack of carbonation just does not help this beer. Sour, sweet and bitter seems to be too much to balance.
Drinkability is average at best. Beer just does not have enough to get past lack of carbonation and a real direction.

Did not know this was a 12% Quad when I opened it. Brewed with "valerian and lemon balm"- now that's a new one!

Stubby 11.2 oz. bottle with a slightly messed up label from Hi Time Wine in Costa Mesa, CA. in January 2007 for $6.49; tasted in April 2007.

When opened, the inner rim of the neck of the glass was heavily coated with gunk- yeast, protein bits, whatever. But it made me wary- OK, I was slightly frightened. Carbonation started building a head in the bottle before I started the pour.

Look is a moderate mud. Some head. Mostly mud.

Aroma is quite unique. Rich and full, but also some spice that is quite distinctive. I have no idea what the hell it is, but it's distinctive. Almost a menthol-mint Vicks Vapo-Rub kind of thing, but much more pleasant than that sounds.

Flavor is quite tasty- well balanced rich slightly sweet maltiness, a pleasant herb/spice mix. Rich mouthfeel kept me sipping this one before I knew the ABV, and I'm glad of it. Some alcohol burn on the back of my throat.

Generally I like it, but it's a little too rich for my blood. In my world, I would take a Rochefort or something else first, but this is good enough!

Flavor mirrors the nose.. rich caramel and long spicy finish.. medium sweetness has enough bitter backbone .. not getting much as far as hops, but again there is a whiff of citrus toward the end of the palate... cherries appear as it warms.

Reminds of what a Belgian take on a Barleywine would be like.. alot of malt.. fair amount of yeastiness.. a little spiciness and sit back and enjoy. This brew has been available in Boise on and off over the last few years and this is probably my 4-5th time sampling it....I will buy it again, but sparingly.. a little pricey.

The beer was well behaved on the pour with a little head and a malty honey alcohol nose. It is a dark brown opaque ale with small bubbles that just looked creamy. It is creamy with an instant alcohol warmth. The taste is surprisingly light and dry with alcohol dominating the palate. Nice sweetness with a citrus dryness making for a clean finish. The label read ale with spices but I cant taste spices other than coriander is a minor way. As it warms, the flavors come together better but this may need a year or three to mellow. It also is a bit thin.

Review from 7/2010 notes. Poured into a Gulden Draak tulip. Pours a dark orange amber with a slight head and no lacing. Aroma estery and boozy. Flavor of brown sugar, fruit, especially orange, booze. Odd spicy finish, mega booze. Interesting flavors, but not at all balanced and the alcohol dominates. Interesting flavors if it was a bit more balanced.

A  Poured a very nice and hazy burnt amber with a nice brownish tint to it, almost a fig type of color. A smallish maybe one finger high head of off white frothy lace came across the top and lingered for a moment before settling down to just a thin layer across the top. There was some decent carbonation streaming up towards the top, but the side glass lace was very nice. Silky like strands that encircled the glass throughout the entire session. Very nice presentation.

S  The aroma was rich with lots of dark yeast and subtle hints of fruit. Some plums and grapes could be picked up along with a bit of a sour note and a very nice touch of sweetness in the back. It was a very upfront aroma with nice complex layers of different fruit like smells. Very inviting.

T  The flavor was wonderful. Very full with the first obvious taste being a deep rooted fruitiness. A nice mellow onset really had to be warmed up before the good stuff started to shine through. A nice touch of plums and peaches were very evident along with a good amount of sour in the back. This was nothing outrageous and sometimes came across quite subtle, but the flavor was really wonderful. Dark and rich hints of figs and grain were becoming apparent along with a ling drawn out finish that had that nice little sour bite at the end and the ever so subtle hint of apple. Very nice indeed.

M  A nice medium bodied ale with good carbonation this was an easy dinner sipper. There was a nice silky quality to it and the depth of the feel let the flavors really roll out and let you explore all the options.

D  Very nice I could have easily had another when this was done. It was something that was to be savored, to be enjoyed over a period of time. This was nothing you wanted to rush as you would have missed out on a great session.

Overall this was unique and wonderful. Something a bit different that I really was not expecting, but that was a wonderful surprise. I really enjoyed how well the yeast was able to morph into different flavors as the temperature changed during the session and found this to be on the whole very warm and enjoyable. I greatly look forward to trying this again in the near future.